An early season storm Wednesday brought showers and rain to Southern California and snow to mountain areas. Rainfall varied across the region, with some areas reporting light showers and others a half-inch or more, according to the National Weather Service. By Wednesday evening, Burbank had recorded 0.10 of an inch of rain, but more than a quarter-inch had fallen at the Santa Monica Pier, the Weather Service said. More than a half-inch of rain was reported in Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County and Palomar Mountain in San Diego County, according to the Weather Service.

Well, it's official now: Southern California stinks. This, of course, qualifies as old news to Americans of the Republican persuasion, and to residents of Northern California, San Franciscans in particular. (Who says bipartisanship is dead in America?!) But it comes as somewhat of a rude awakening to those of us who live in what we modestly like to call “heaven on Earth.” The trouble started Monday when residents from Ventura County to Palm Springs reported a foul stench.

In the absence of statewide regulations for hydraulic fracturing, Southern California air-quality officials have enacted their own reporting rules for the controversial extraction process driving the country's oil and gas boom. On Friday, the governing board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District adopted a rule that requires oil companies to notify the air agency 10 days to 24 hours before beginning drilling operations, including "fracking," which involves injecting large volumes of chemical-laced water and sand deep into the ground to break apart rock and release oil. That notice, including the location of the well, will then be posted on the agency's website . Under the new rule, companies are also required to disclose all the chemicals they use, a provision that sparked opposition from oil industry trade groups and Halliburton, one of the world's largest oil field service companies and a pioneer of hydraulic fracturing.

Just in time for your summer vacation, the Los Angeles Times unveils two new digital projects, each designed to help locals and visitors alike get the best of Southern California. “SoCal Close-ups: Your Vacation Guide,” an e-book for Kindle, Nook and iPad (via the iBookstore) by Christopher Reynolds, is available for $4.99 starting Wednesday (today). You can find details at www.latimes.com/bookstore . It includes about 40,000 words of expert advice on exploring, eating and sleeping in Los Angeles and Orange counties, all from Los Angeles Times writer Christopher Reynolds, who has sampled more than 300 hotels, museums, parks, piers, trails, restaurants, bars and shops.

Climate change is likely to wipe a lot of the white from those postcard winter scenes of Los Angeles ringed by snow-capped mountains, according to new research. A UCLA study released Friday projects a significant decline in snowfall on the ranges that provide a dramatic backdrop to urban Southern California. By mid-century, the amount of snow draping the mountains could decrease 30% to 40%, researchers say. If greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, the ranges could lose two-thirds of their snow by century's end. That means fewer and fewer days in coming decades will reflect the classic images of sun and snow that have idealized life in Southern California since 1920s citrus-crate labels beckoned to Easterners.

Population growth in Southern California continued to slow last year, another factor in soft demand for housing. The populations of the Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego metro areas were still growing in 2013, according to new figures released by the Census Bureau on Thursday, but less quickly than they did in either of the two years prior. Of the six counties in Southern California, only two - Riverside and San Diego - grew faster than the state as a whole. Housing economists and demographics experts note that fewer people moving and fewer people forming new households have dampened demand for housing since the end of the recession.

If you are looking for a spiritual experience at a spa, think about what spirituality means to you. "Spirituality means different things to different people," says Susie Ellis, president of the marketing company SpaFinder Wellness. "Today a spa treatment or a getaway with a spiritual component is often centered on helping people cope with record levels of stress and achieve inner peace or balance. " Here are some spots in Southern California that offer spirituality-related treatments.

Thomas V. McKernan, chief executive of the Automobile Club of Southern California, has retired after serving 46 years with the organization, including 21 in the top post. He was succeeded by Robert Bouttier, who previously was the club's president and chief operating officer. McKernan started out as a customer service representative in the Pasadena branch in 1966 and worked his way up the corporate ladder, serving as a computer programmer and chief financial officer before his appointment as CEO in 1991.

Southern California's office market has moved ever so slightly in favor of landlords. In the just-finished third quarter of 2013, the overall vacancy rate fell a tiny bit, and average monthly rents ticked up a few cents. The slight upward shift was typical of the last several quarters. The region's office rental market stabilized after the recession, but has not picked up steam the way it did during previous economic recoveries. "This is uncharted territory," said research analyst Petra Durnin of property brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.

Aerospace giant Boeing Co., which for years has been cutting its workforce in Southern California, announced that it plans to increase its engineering workforce in Long Beach and Seal Beach by 1,000 positions over the next two years. It is a surprising announcement from the plane maker, which has 1,800 commercial engineers in Long Beach and Seal Beach. The company said earlier in the week that it would shutter its C-17 production line three months earlier than planned in mid-2015.